TOP DOUGLAS FAIRBANKS MOVIES

Last week’s look at some posters from the silent movie era inspired me to go ahead with this list of what I consider to be the top Douglas Fairbanks films prior to sound. (Talkies are just a fad, I’m tellin’ ya!)

THE MARK OF ZORRO (1920) – Douglas Fairbanks digs into his comedic AND acrobatic skills in this first screen adaptation of Johnston McCully’s masked hero of 1820s California (The Curse of Capistrano had just been published the year before and Fairbanks bought the film rights for United Artists.)

In my opinion no actor has ever done a better job of drawing such a pronounced distinction between the foppish and timid Don Diego de Vega and his dashing alter ego, the swordsman Zorro. This movie showed all subsequent swashbuckler movies how it’s done and proved that its star could do more than just comedy.

Excellent fight choreography, heroic opposition to tyranny and the rousing, marathon chase and fight scene near the film’s finale make The Mark of Zorro an absolute must-see for anyone curious about silent movies. Nearly every frame of the film is a portrait.

Marguerite De La Motte played the love interest Lolita Pulido, Tote Du Crow portrayed Don Diego’s mute manservant Bernardo, Robert McKim was the villainous Captain Ramon and Walt “Not the Poet” Whitman played Fray Felipe to round out the core characters from the many Zorro tales.

THE BLACK PIRATE (1926) – Fairbanks starred as the Duke of Arnoldo aka the Black Pirate in this high seas adventure that captured the feel of Rafael Sabatini’s novels and the look of Howard Pyle’s artwork of the Golden Age of Piracy. The seizing, plundering and destruction of treasure-laden ships has rarely looked so stunning.

While pursuing his career of piracy, our hero is simultaneously looking for revenge on the pirate captain who killed his father. The Black Pirate features some of Doug’s best action set pieces since his 1920 classic – all manner of sword fights, including with two swords at once, swinging from the ship’s ropes, seizing a prize ship literally single handed and more.

Fairbanks even imitated his own “slash and ride down a tapestry” stunt from Robin Hood, this time slashing and riding down a sail during an action scene. Ultimately, the Black Pirate gets revenge and saves a beautiful noblewoman from a fate worse than death.

Billie Dove played Princess Isobel, but Douglas’ real-life wife Mary Pickford did an uncredited cameo as the character for the final passionate kiss with our hero.

THE THIEF OF BAGDAD (1924) – What Star Wars was to later decades, Fairbanks’ The Thief of Bagdad was to the 1920s. Though it was nowhere near the financial bonanza of the George Lucas work, this 1924 production used state of the art special effects and sets in an extravaganza that only a superstar could helm.

A swashbuckling thief with a heart of gold vies with an evil prince to win the hand of the Caliph’s daughter (Julanne Johnston). A quest is on to seek out exotic treasures to prove each suitor’s worth, but human and supernatural menaces must be overcome first, including huge monsters the like of which had never before been seen on film.

Audiences thrilled as our sword-wielding hero clashed with soldiers and sea creatures, rode a flying horse, climbed an enchanted rope and ultimately soared off on a magic carpet with the princess.

Anna May Wong appeared as a vamping seductress in this movie which definitively proves that, yes, even the Ray Harryhausen Sinbad films count as swashbucklers. Any kind of movie Doug starred in qualifies.

ROBIN HOOD (1922) – The 1938 Errol Flynn film borrowed just about everything from this Douglas Fairbanks hit and John Barrymore’s non-Robin Hood actioner Beloved Rogue. Doug broke the million-dollar mark for cinematic budgets with this tale of the notorious bandit of Sherwood Forest.

In this version of the story, Robert the Earl of Huntingdon is away fighting in the Crusades with King Richard the Lionhearted when Lady Marian Fitzwalter (Enid Bennett) writes to him regarding the tyranny of Prince John and the Sheriff of Nottingham.

Our hero returns to England, gathers his Merry Men around him and uses his skill at archery and swordplay to rob from the rich and give to the poor. Little John, Friar Tuck, Alan-a-Dale, Will Scarlet and the rest are along for the ride, of course.

Spectacular stunts, incredible swordfights and daring robberies are the order of the day as Robin Hood overcomes Sir Guy of Guisbourne and his other foes. As in The Mark of Zorro, this movie features a prolonged running battle/ chase scene boasting derring-do like drawbridge jumping, defying amazing odds against multiple opponents at once and the original version of Doug’s “slash and ride down a tapestry” stunt.

Alan Hale Sr. made his first of three film appearances in the role of Little John.

THE GAUCHO (1927) – An unjustly overlooked Fairbanks movie so I’m giving it extra attention. Our hero turns in a grittier performance than usual as the title character – the ruthless, plundering, womanizing leader of a gang of Argentinian gaucho outlaws. (Don’t miss his Douglas “Dice” Fairbanks moment with a cigarette.)

The Gaucho doesn’t swordfight, but he does use guns and wields an Argentinian bola (above) to take down opponents and occasionally wrap together himself and his fiery favorite woman (THE Lupe Velez). Fairbanks drew on actual gaucho tall tales for some story elements, like the way the outlaw steals an entire building at one point.

The main town near the Gaucho’s jungle hideout is the site of an appearance by the Virgin Mary (Doug’s wife Mary Pickford) as well as a blessed Healing Fountain. Our hero doesn’t believe in God or miracles but helps out the townspeople when they are preyed upon by the tinpot tyrant Ruiz (Gustav von Seyffer).

The story unfolds like a South American version of Robin Hood, Zorro or similar tales. The stunts are typically terrific, especially the way Doug agilely makes his way among the treetops, branches and tall buildings. The Gaucho moves like a proto-superhero.

When he is stricken with leprosy late in the film, our title character at last finds faith under the coaching of The Girl of the Shrine, now a grown woman since her childhood encounter with the Madonna. When he is cured by the holy waters of the Healing Fountain the outlaw reforms and becomes a new man.

While engaged in his final battle with Ruiz and his men, the Gaucho and his lady are tied to a post and slated for execution. He gets another assist from God, who sends down a lightning bolt to cause a cattle stampede which the outlaw and his woman survive because the post they are tied to is on an elevated surface.

I have always wondered if Spielberg was inspired by this finale when he made Raiders of the Lost Ark. As the rampaging cattle crush and kill the villains while swarming around our bound hero and heroine, it resembles the unleashed forces of the Ark of the Covenant swirling around the Nazis while Indy and Marion remain safe. Watch it yourself and see what I mean.

DON Q: SON OF ZORRO (1925) – And speaking of underrated Douglas Fairbanks films, how about this one? Decades before Lash Larue and Indiana Jones, Fairbanks wielded a whip in battle like no one had ever seen.

Doug adapted the Don Q pulp character and retconned him into being Zorro’s son in order to make this a sequel to his 1920 film The Mark of Zorro. This time around, Zorro’s son Don Cesar de Vega is in Spain for his higher education and runs afoul of assorted powerful villains.

Faking his own death, he adopts the alias Don Q and hides out in the ruins of the de Vega ancestral castle. From there he ventures forth to tangle with the bad guys and romance a beautiful woman (THE Mary Astor) while his foes don’t realize that Don Q is the man they believe to be dead. 

In the exciting finale Fairbanks used split-screen technology to show up as papa Zorro and fight side by side with his swashbuckling son. They take on several foes at once in the de Vega ancestral site. 

THE THREE MUSKETEERS (1921) – The Dougmeister General starred  in this action epic loosely based on the novel by Alexandre Dumas. In 1620s France, D’Artagnan (Fairbanks) makes a name for himself fighting alongside a trio of King Louis XIII’s (Adolphe Menjou) musketeers while foiling the schemes of the sinister Cardinal Richelieu (Nigel De Brulier).

Athos (Leon Bary), Porthos (George Siegmann) and Aramis (Eugene Pallett) get even shorter shrift than they usually do in early productions of this tale. Doug dominates the screen in this flick which is not as good as The Mark of Zorro, but Fairbanks would soar to greater heights as the 1920s rolled along.

Marguerite De La Motte co-starred as Constance Bonacieux, Barbara La Marr was Lady De Winter, Boyd Irwin portrayed Count Rochefort and Mary MacLaren played Queen Anne. A quality cast, but the sheer number of players robbed The Three Musketeers of the intimacy that helped make Doug’s previous film such a hit.

THE IRON MASK (1929) – Fairbanks was appropriately aged by the time he did this sequel to The Three Musketeers, based on another novel by Dumas, The Man in the Iron Mask. Much of the cast from the original reprised their roles in this film set several years later.

Doug was back as D’Artagnan, Marguerite De La Motte returned as Constance, as did Leon Bary as Athos, Nigel De Brulier as Cardinal Richelieu and Charles Stevens as Planchet. As everybody knows, this tale featured the four musketeers involved in the intrigues regarding royal heirs, one of whom is forced to wear an iron mask so the other can assume the throne.

D’Artagnan and his three allies defeat the villains, but are killed off one by one in a melancholy touch. After decisively vanquishing our malefactors, the mortally wounded D’Artagnan sees a vision in the sky of the other three musketeers, restored to youth in the afterlife.

The trio invite Fairbanks to join them for the grand adventures to be found in their version of Heaven and he does so, with his own youth restored as he joins them in the clouds above. What better ending for Doug’s last hurrah as a swashbuckling hero?

FOR MY TAKE ON THE BEST SILENT HORROR FILMS CLICK HERE.